Coach Jonathan McClinton spent a year challenging his defending champion Zachary team that the same effort that earned the 2025 title wouldn’t be enough to hold off its challengers.
And, on Saturday, that mentality paid off, as the No. 1 Broncos (33-4) had just enough left in the tank to out-duel and outlast a star-studded No. 2 Ruston (23-4) and a Hercluean performance by Bearcats junior forward Ahmad Hudson, one of the nation’s top football and basketball prospects.
Zachary’s own two-sport junior star Ethan Kimmie came up with the final two field goals to scratch back ahead in the final minutes after a resilient Ruston rally and a fast-and-furious, back-and-forth quarter.
And the Broncos found the critical plays — defending, securing rebounds, taking care of the ball and draining free throws — from every direction to cling to the 63-60 win as time expired on the Division-I Non-Select state championship.
“We had to take everything up a notch,” McClinton told the LHSAA Network postgame broadcast. “We told ’em the same effort that we came with last year wasn’t going to suffice for this year. And anything we felt like we were being routine, anytime we felt like we were doing the same thing we did last year, we had to check it. Because at that point we’re losing games. So in June, we lost games; in July, we would lose games; in August, we would lose games. We can’t wait until March 14 to be able to turn it up a notch, because everybody us in preparing or planning to beat you. So everything has to go up another level. You can never become complacent.”
A Kimmie putback provided Zachary a razor-thin 57-56 edge it managed to defend for well over a minute, include senior guards Cambien Price and Aiden Givens corralling a rebound and a loose ball, respectively.
Point guard Ian Edmond split a pair of free throws to nudge the lead to 58-56, and fellow junior Mason Newman stepped up to draw a charge at the other end with 1:05 to play.
Hudson intercepted a deep pass out on the back end of a press, but the Broncos managed another stop in response, and Newman earned and converted a pair of foul shots with 38.1 seconds remaining.
The Bearcats kept coming, including a pair of late putbacks by Hudson, but the clock quickly became an insurmountably uphill battle.
Zachary threw different defensive looks a Ruston that forced more time to run, and Edmond and senior forward Kristion Brooks cashed in three of four final free throws to maintain control through the final buzzer.
“We won the game at the end,” McClinton said. “In the grand scheme of things, that’s what you really want. As a coach, you really want your guys to experience these moments, because these are moments that they’re going to (remember) for the rest of their lives. So hats off to Ruston. Hats off to coach (Marcus) Jackson. He does a great job. They do a great job. They’re a great team. But we’ve been shooting the ball well, and that’s been really our surprising point, because defensively is where we hang our hats on all the time.”
Zachary players Kristion Brooks (3), Travis Barber (22) and Ian Edmond (15) celebrate the Broncos’ Division-I Non-Select state championship Saturday, March 14, 2026. (Photo: Bret H. McCormick, One T Photography)
The Broncos, 21-for-50 (42%), edged the Bearcats, 21-for-53 (39.6%) in field-goal shooting, but gained a particular advantage from beyond the arc and at the end of quarters.
Zachary finished 7-for-17 (41.2%) from deep, while Ruston missed all 12 of the 3-point attempts.
And Edmond, Newman and junior guard Jerry Armwood beat the buzzer in each of the first three quarters for a combined eight points for a Broncos team that lead, 48-41, heading into the fourth.
Edmond drained a step-back 3-pointer from the right wing to knot the game at 15-15 after a period.
Newman rebounded a missed trey and made his putback for a 34-28 halftime advantage.
And Armwood chased down a loose ball on an inbound in the final seconds of the third for one of his three steals and flicked the ball ahead for a bank-in 3.
Hudson managed to not only survive foul trouble to some degree throughout the game and particularly for the final 6:50 with four personals, but to dominate for stretches to help rally his Bearcats back to their first lead since the first quarter, a 50-49 edge with 4:57 remaining, on one of his many putbacks.
He finished with game-highs of 32 points — on a hyper-efficient 13-for-18 (72.2%) from the floor — 24 rebounds, seven blocked shots and four steals and dished out an assist.
But the Broncos threw enough different looks his direction to make his work for almost every bit of that stat line, and they received enough key performances up and down their rotations to remain the last ones standing when the dust settled.
“Just wanting to win,” Edmond said of Zachary’s ability to rise to the state-tournament stage with back-to-back titles and four in the past six years. “Like I said last year, I told my seniors I was gonna get them another one, so just worry about winning.”
Edmond earned the game’s Most Outstanding Player honors with a team-high 20 points, three rebounds and an assist.
Kimmie and Newman joined him in double-figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively, and Brooks and Price chipped in six and five.
Price grabbed a team-high six rebounds, Kimmie had four steals and two rebounds and Brooks added three rebounds, two steals, two assists and two blocked shots.
“I’m a transfer from U-High, so I didn’t win last year, but it was a great opportunity to win it with this group of people,” Kimmie said. “I’m just grateful that I’m here… It feels great.”
Added McClinton: “Ethan Kimmie, he constantly, constantly every day got better and better and better and better. And I know the transition was tough for him, but at the end of the day, he trusted us enough to tell him the right thing. This is how much of a great kid he is: He told one of our coaches he didn’t care about scoring the ball. If there was one thing he had to do, he had to be able to get rebounds and guard No. 11 (Hudson) for the other team.”
Sophomore point guard Darren Ford added 19 points, four rebounds, three assists and a steal for Ruston.
And junior wing KeShun Malcolm had seven points, six rebounds, two blocked shots, an assist and a steal.